Structural: has nothing to do with changes in the qualities of individuals,
has to do with changes in the social structure of society
■
Horizontal: movement from one occupation to another in the same
stratum
■
Vertical Intergenerational: movement up or down in a stratification system
between generations
■
Intragenerational: mobility within one’s lifetime
❖
Chapter 13
➢
Life chances (see the glossary in the index): the probabilities concerning the fate
an individual can expect in life
➢
Effects of parents’ social class on children’s life chances
■
Health: mortality and morbidity rates are negatively related to social class
possibly from inadequacies of the physical environment
■
Education: parental income has an effect on whether children finish high
school and attend and graduate from college
■
Working life: growing up in poor families reduces men’s annual earnings
and time working
■
Crime and justice: poor people are more likely to be victims of crime,
lower class citizens are more likely to commit crimes/be arrested for
crimes than higher class
➢
Reproduction of class structure: most people end up in a class position that is the
same as or close to the one occupied by their parents
➢
Cultural explanations of reproduction of the class structure
■
Hinge on two assumptions: 1) people in different social classes have
different patterns of values/beliefs/behavioral norms which they pass on
to their kids; 2)
values/beliefs/behavioral norms of lower classes are not
very compatible with success in society
➢
Cultural explanations of reproduction of poverty: Oscar Lewis said the culture of
poverty turns it into a vicious cycle, perpetuates itself from generation to
generation through the effects on children
➢
Culture of poverty: out of whack with the culture of mainstream society, not
prepared for the learning demands of society
➢
Income
➢
Wealth
■
Be able to tell the difference between income and wealth, given examples
➢
Social stratification
➢
Structural explanations of reproduction of class system: reject the notion that the
best way to understand poverty is to look at cultural attributes of the poor, argue
that it is much more appropriate to focus on the limited access to opportunities
that poor people have compared to the more affluent
➢
Structural explanations of reproduction of poverty: cultural theories contribute to
the problem,
■
Be able to compare and contrast examples of structural versus cultural
causes of poverty
➢
Structure of opportunities (see table 13.1 for an example):
playing field is
unequal in schools (tracking students, lower class disproportionately placed in
lower tracks, creates highly stratified schools), people who go to college are
disproportionately high income
➢
Pygmalion effect – do teachers’ expectations affect students’ performance?
yes
Know this research on “spurters.”
■
Spurters: the 20% on the verge of blooming academically, made teachers
think certain kids were destined for high achievement, at the end of the
